The European Investment Bank is launching Italy's six-month Presidency of the European Union with a loan to Regione Marche. The EU's financing institution is advancing EUR 100 million to finance the regional component of projects of Community interest. This loan will help to underpin schemes included in the EU Structural Funds' 2000-2006 Single Programming Document and in other Community programmes implemented in the Marche region (Leader, Interreg, Equal, European Social Fund).

This is the EIB's first direct loan to an Objective 2 region and follows similar operations mounted in Objective 1 regions in Italy and elsewhere in Europe. It is in line with the aims of the Treaty and Community regulations, which provide for close coordination between EIB and Structural Fund financing.

The loan, which will have a 25-year term, represents the second tranche of a EUR 450 million credit line approved by the Bank at the beginning of the year. The first EUR 250 million, disbursed in February, was directed towards financing the third phase of reconstruction operations in the Marche region following the 1997 earthquake. In the coming months, the EIB will deploy the remaining EUR 100 million in support of the regional authority's investments under its development plan.

The loan agreement was signed at the Italian Embassy in Luxembourg by EIB Vice-President, Gerlando Genuardi, and the President of Regione Marche, Vito d'Ambrosio, in the presence of the Italian Ambassador, Raffaele Campanella.

We are confident that, in line with our experience in Objective 1 areas, this type of loan will enhance the synergies between EIB and Structural Fund financing and will serve as a model for other Objective 2 regions in Italy and the rest of Europe remarked EIB Vice-President Genuardi. As well as deepening relations between the EIB and Regione Marche, this loan constitutes recognition of the actions of the Economy Ministry's Department for Development and Cohesion Policy, making Italy the country where the link between EIB loans, the Structural Funds and national financial resources is being forged most successfully.

The Region's investment programme encompasses support for private entrepreneurship and the craft industry, infrastructure and environmental works (water and waste management, development of protected areas) and measures to help diversify the local economy (incentives for the tourism sector, cultural heritage schemes, improvement of social services).

The economy of the Marche region, with its 1.45 million inhabitants, is one of the most dynamic in the country: its rate of growth in the 1996-2001 period was 2.5%, compared to 1.9% for Italy as a whole.

The EIB, the European Union's long-term financing institution, funds capital investment furthering European integration in areas such as regional development, trans-European transport, telecoms and energy networks, industrial competitiveness and integration, SMEs, environmental protection and energy security. It also operates outside the Union within the framework of the EU's development aid and co-operation policy. Owned by the Member States, the EIB raises its funds on the capital markets (AAA-rated issuer).